Family owned hotel in Sunset Beach reopens 8 months after Hurricane Helene: 'The place was decimated'

Roth Hotel back open after Hurricane Helene

FOX 13's Kailey Tracy shares the road to recovery for a family owned hotel in Sunset Beach after being damaged by recent hurricanes.

TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. - Eight months after Hurricane Helene, a family owned hotel in Sunset Beach recently reopened just in time for Memorial Day weekend.

The backstory:

The Roth Hotel’s owner said nearly nine feet of storm surge pummeled the hotel, destroying almost everything.

READ: Pinellas leaders to weigh plan for $813M in hurricane relief funds

"The place was decimated," Craig Rothschild, the general manager and owner, said. "We got hit so hard."

"You just have to stay positive and there’s really nothing you could do. I mean, when you live in paradise, you deal with hurricanes, you deal with storms, and you just have to be resilient," he said.

Rothschild owns the hotel with his parents. They watched the water rise on the security camera video until the feed cut off.

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What they're saying:

"It was scary. I even get emotional talking about it, but, you know, watching your baby get nine and a half feet of water is sad, it's hard. We didn't know what the future held. We had worked so hard to build this place, and you know it just washed away in a matter of a few hours," Rothschild said.

He and his family bought and renovated the hotel, which was built in 1954, in 2021. The storm forced them to do it all over again.

"We'd been doubling revenue every year, and we were on track to have the best year in 2024 and the hurricane came in September," Rothschild said.

They got their permit to rebuild the 14-room boutique hotel in February. The AC units that are higher up on the building were some of the only things that did survive.

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"We actually couldn't even get into this front walkway. It was so packed … piles of debris anywhere from huge tanks from propane and all this stuff," Rothschild said, walking in the entryway of the hotel. "So, we slowly, one item at a time, moved it out to the curb and just picked away at it," he said.

Everything in the rooms is brand new now. They also raised the outlets higher during the rebuild, and made some other upgrades in case there’s another storm.

"I think that us being able to reopen in the timely fashion that we are is a beacon of hope for the neighborhood. There's a lot of small homes here and a lot the neighbors rely on the little hotels on Sunset Beach to have their family and friends come when they visit. We're very lucky and blessed that we were able to acquire the permits and get everything done so quickly to allow guests to come back," Rothschild said.

What's next:

Rothschild said the Roth Hotel is completely booked for Memorial Day weekend.

The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13's Kailey Tracy.

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